Korg ElecTribe M (EM-1)

The ElecTribe EM-1 Music Production System is another great ElecTribe
series instrument with two synth-parts and
eight drum-parts. Sort of combining the elements of the original
ElecTribe EA-1 and ER-1,
the new EM-1 is an all-in-one groove and dance music machine for DJs and musicians alike!

The EM-1 has loads of drum sounds, all of which are excellent for dance music.
There are 144 different sounds, and patterns can have up to eight drum parts. Parts
can be muted and individually processed, live and in realtime. The synth sounds
consist of 50 waveforms and a pattern can hold up to two synth parts.
Waveform editing includes volume, panning, envelope, filtering, roll-effect,
internal effects processing, pitch, and glide (portamento). The filter is only
a 12 dB/oct low-pass with cutoff and resonance controls which is a little thin, but
it still gets the point across.

Naturally, the EM-1 features an advanced built-in sequencer with multi-effects
for complete Music Production features. The sequencer holds up to 256 patterns
and 16 songs. It ships with 192 of them full of cool dance programs to get you going.
Sequencing is done in step or real time using the 16 pads which represent 16th notes
of a 1-bar pattern. Patterns can be up to 64-steps (4-bars) long. Built-in effects
consist of two processors, a Master (global) Delay and one of 11 Insert Effects. The insert effects
include Reverb, Flanger/Chorus, Phaser, Ring modulator, Pitch shifter, Compressor,
Distortion, Decimator, Resonator, and Modulation Delay. The Motion Sequencer functions
can record movements of the EM-1's knobs in realtime and store them with your Patterns
to add rhythmic effects, filter sweeps, and evolving synth or effect changes.

The EM-1 is certainly a cool dance music production system! On the Professional level,
its two-voices of synth parts is very slim pickings. On the other hand, it can offer
Pro-DJ's incredible performance potential! For example, you can store up to 64
patterns to the step keys for realtime pattern recall. Combine that with realtime
part muting/soloing, and realtime filtering, tweaking and effecting, tap-tempo or MIDI
clock sync for an excellent groove machine! Although there are far fewer hands-on knobs than
on the Yamaha AN-200 and DX-200,
the EM-1 is less expensive and offers a great nag for its buck! It has been used by The Prodigy.

The link above will take you to an eBay search for this synth to see active listings with more images, specs and information. If you don't find it there, try looking in our forum marketplace. Our marketplace gets thousands of visits every week so make sure to check back often if you want to buy or sell a synth.

Hello, I picked one of these up on Ebay for very cheap with the understanding that the arpeggiator and FX knobs would not be working. As it turns out, ALL knobs are unresponsive except for t... | Read more...

Audio Clip 1 - Here are two demo sequences from the EM-1. You can hear how even with only two voices of synth sounds, the built-in effects really thicken it up. And the drum sounds complete the groove!